A humbling experience in a Laotian Town (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)

This is Chapter 13 from Mr. Prabhakaran’s book, An Indian Goes Around the World – I: Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum, which we have been serializing in this space. Chapter 14, “Garbage Dumps and Traffic Jams in the Silicon Valley of India,” will appear next week. Read the series every Monday. – Editor)

It was November 23, 2006. I woke up in the morning with a sad feeling that I had only a few more hours left to spend in Luang Prabang. The day before, I had been out all day, exploring the town. Area-wise, it doesn’t take one full day to cover the length and breadth of the town, even on foot. But there is something exotic about this lush, little Laotian town, at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers, which leaves one with a feeling that he hasn’t had enough even after taking in its beauty all day.

In an article published in The New York Times of March 11, 1990, Nicholas D. Kristof, the paper’s Beijing bureau chief at the time and now one of its Op-Ed columnists, describes Luang Prabang as “one of the most authentic windows left on Asia as it used to be.” I wouldn’t go that far. Maybe it was so in 1990 when he wrote the article. Since then, it has changed a lot. But it still has a charm of its own, a charm that prompted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include it in its World Heritage Sites List. Ever since the UNESCO bestowed that honor on it in 1995, Luang Prabang has been enjoying the same status as Angkor Wat of Cambodia, the Taj Mahal of India and other World Heritage Sites. And it has also been enjoying a steady influx of tourists.

The place gets its name from Pra Bang, meaning little Buddha in Lao. The little Buddha’s image, a tad below 33 inches in height and about 119 pounds in weight, was cast in a mixture of gold, silver and bronze. It was cast in Sri Lanka, reportedly in the first century, and taken to Cambodia. It was given to the ruler of Laos in the 15th century, when the kingdom came under Cambodian suzerainty.

A gilt bronze copy of Pra Bang now sits in the National Museum in Luang Prabang. The original statue, 90 percent of which is gold, is kept under lock and key in the country’s national bank. Pra Bang shows the Buddha standing, with arms raised at the elbows, palms facing forward. This hand gesture, known as the Abhaya Mudra (the sign of fearlessness), signifies assurance and protection.

The museum – which was once the royal palace, built by King Sisavang Vong between 1904 and 1909 – is now one of the main tourist attractions in Luang Prabang. Apart from the bronze copy of Pra Bang, it houses the royal throne of the Lan Xang Kingdom and many other regalia and religious treasures.

Women’s Status

I couldn’t help noticing one thing when I saw the king’s and queen’s bedrooms in the museum. I am not referring to the difference in size of the rooms. I am referring to the noticeable difference in elegance of the two beds. The king’s bed has a headboard and a footboard. The footboard has Erawan, the three-headed elephant symbolizing the three kingdoms of Laos, carved on it. All these are missing from the queen’s bed. Does it have something to do with Theravada Buddhism, the variant of Buddhism practiced in Laos? The thought did cross my mind. Theravada, meaning the Doctrine of the Elders, doesn’t give women equal status with men.

However, what I had witnessed while entering the museum was reason enough for me to dispel that thought. It reminded me that the Laotian society has outgrown the religious doctrine that treated women unequally. In front of Pra Bang, which was only a few feet away from the entrance, I had seen women in blue jeans sitting side by side with men and chanting the famous Buddhist prayer: “Buddham Sharanam Gachhami, Dharmam Sharanam Gachhami, Sangham Sharanam Gachhami [I seek refuge in the Buddha, I seek refuge in the Dharma (the teachings), I seek refuge in the Sangha (the community)].”

Progress represented by women’s wearing of blue jeans may be dismissed by some as merely cosmetic. But Luang Prabang also has concrete evidence to prove that the progress the women of the place have achieved is more than cosmetic. Most of the restaurants, guesthouses and other businesses in the town are either run by women or owned by them. And at the night market, which the long stretch of the road in front of the museum gets transformed into at sunset and which is another big draw among tourists, those I saw selling their merchandise were mostly women.

One of those women got into a heated argument with me when I accidentally stepped on, and partially damaged, an antique ashtray she had displayed on the floor. She wouldn’t let me go until I compensated her for the damage. She and most other vendors knew as much English as was necessary to conduct business with foreigners – which is another proof of progress.

Apart from Pra Bang, the city has another important association with the Buddha. Legend has it that “the Buddha smiled when he rested here for a day during his travels, prophesying that it would one day be the site of a rich and powerful capital city.” In 1354, it became the capital of Lan Xang Kingdom or the Kingdom of a Million Elephants. The capital moved to Vientiane in 1560. The move was significant only politically, though. Luang Prabang continued to be the cultural capital of Laos. It has remained so till today.

Special Gift to Foreigners

As I had only a few more hours left to savor Luang Prabang, I got out of the guesthouse, where I was staying, very early in the morning. There was another reason for my getting out that early: the owner of the guesthouse had told me the previous night that if I could go to the street corner outside before sunrise, I would be witnessing something very special.

“What is it?” I had asked her.

          “Go and see it for yourself. It is Luang Prabang’s special gift to foreigners,” she had said.

I was not going to miss it for anything in the world. I was out at the street corner at 5:45 in the morning. Two other foreign tourists, who also knew about this “special gift,” had already arrived there. They wanted to capture the moment, one of them on his video camera. He told me what we were going to see.

          A few women were sitting at the street corner, with baskets and bowls in front of them. They were waiting for Buddhist monks from nearby monasteries, who would soon be coming by to collect what they had in their baskets and bowls. What they had were their offerings – the monks’ food for the day, mainly rice.

          In Buddhism, giving and receiving alms are considered rituals. Because they are rituals, the givers don’t call what they give alms. They call them their offerings to the monks. Buddhist monks don’t beg. They accept whatever is offered. It is a common practice among them, especially in Asian countries, to go around the village early in the morning with bowls in hand and collect the devotees’ offerings. In Luang Prabang, the devotees go a step further. They go out and meet the monks half-way.

Rows of Orange-Robed Monks

          In a few minutes, rows and rows of orange-robed monks, with bowls in hand, began to arrive. The color of the robe the Buddhist monks wear varies from country to country. All the monks I saw in Luang Prabang wore orange-colored robes. For monks and nuns, robes and bowls are very important. The Buddha had said: “Just as a bird takes its wings with it wherever it flies, so the monk takes his robes and bowl with him wherever he goes.”

          According to the precepts of Theravada Buddhism, women are not supposed to stand higher than monks. That could be the reason why all women who had come to the street corner with their offerings were seen sitting. Though they were sitting, rather than kneeling as is the Buddhist custom, there was not an iota of immodesty in any one of them.

          It was awesome to watch the smiling monks silently arrive, collect in their bowls what the smiling Laotian women offered, and then move on to the next street corner, and thence to the next neighborhood. I knew that any one of them was competent, and some of them qualified, enough to take up any job in this modern world. Any one of them could easily have more material comforts than what the daily offerings of the devotees provided them. But, following in the footsteps of the Buddha, they chose the life of total renunciation and the contentment that came from it.

For a person living in New York, in a ‘per-hour society’ that measures success in life in terms of the amount of money one makes per hour, it was quite a revelatory experience – a very humbling one.

Photo: Buddhist monks from monasteries in Luang Prabang, Laos, going through the morning ritual of visiting their neighborhoods to receive offerings from devotees.

 (To be continued)

(M.P. Prabhakaran can be reached by email at [email protected])

12
A morning walk by the Mekong; A restaurant named after my niece

Chapter: 11:
A jacket and a bride for the price of one: Shopping on Nanjing Road (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)

10:
How a Shanghai neighborhood got an Indian name

9: 
Capitalist celebrations in Communist China – on May Day (Travel with MP Prabhakaran

8) Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum – But in Its Crude Form

7) Picture of a cow on Beijing billboard confuses a Hindu (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)

6) Yoga on Copacabana, conducted by a Brazilian beauty (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)

5
Hunchback and sugar loaf: Two tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro

4) 
How Portugal failed to colonize Calicut: Chat with a Brazilian

3) Brahma and Laxmi reincarnate in Brazil? (Travel with M.P. Prabhakaran)

2) Eva Peron’s tomb is too small for her ego (Travel with M.P. Prabhakaran)

1) My Two Embarrassing Moments in Buenos Aires (Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum-1: M. P. Prabhakaran)
http://dlatimes.com/article.php?id=40709

(about the author) An Indian Goes Around the World – I (Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum)http://dlatimes.com/article.php?id=40126